STATEMENT FROM JOHN MORTON, III, GBC CHAIRMAN

Today marks the culmination of five months work by the Greater Baltimore Committee and the President’s Roundtable to respond to Mayor O’Malley’s request to study the efficiency of five City departments and the City’s information technology structure.

During this time at a direct cost of $100,000, six project teams with nearly 30 sub-committees involving over 250 leaders from the region have been engaged on a volunteer basis. Their charge was to focus on actionable solutions and exceed the Mayor’s expectations. The results are 250 significant and impacting recommendations, yielding between $80 to $135 million in reductions to the City’s annual expenses. I would like to publicly thank the volunteer executives for their time and resources and Mayor O’Malley for bringing the President’s Roundtable and GBC together.

But make no mistakes . . . if you think these recommendations are only to reduce expenses . . . your wrong . . . The real objectives are to improve both the quality and scope of services provided to our citizens. To do so will require new processes. To pay for the development and implementation of such new processes will require the re-allocation of resources from inefficient and ineffective old processes.

Neither the Greater Baltimore Committee nor the President’s Roundtable believes we have provided all or the most accurate solutions. Nor do we believe every recommendation can or will be implemented. However, it is very clear that “business as usual” when it comes to the delivery of municipal services is no longer in the best interest of Baltimore’s citizens. What we do hope for is a positive dialogue on the recommendations that will ultimately result in the right decisions by the Major for Baltimore.

In conclusion, we are all much more aware and appreciative of the size and complexity of the issues facing Mayor O’Malley and like him, believe there are solutions. We also thank the Mayor for involving the expertise that resides in the private sector to address the challenges he faces and we have offered to assist in the future should he so chose. Finally, we are all very optimistic about the future because we see a Mayor who welcomes input, has an open mind to new ways and clearly has a bias for action.